nothing had been done.
Grey and I stepped inside. The place smelled of fresh paint and sawdust. I could also smell the newly packed dirt and sod out back. My Elementals appeared and headed in front of us to the garden to check it out.
They seem excited.
"Yeah. They are. New earth, new plants, new everything." I flipped the back garden's lights on and stared at the completed work.
It was breathtaking. Crwys's new design was nicer than Ina's had been, with less weaving and not as much color, but the simplicity made everything more elegant. I unlocked the sliding door and stepped out onto the new cement patio. The house itself made a squared U-shape, with the left wing housing the bedrooms and the right wing Ina's old study and the private rooms. The center of the house had been where Ina taught her students in Witchcraft and built her coven. A coven that was now little more than ash floating about in Couturie Forest. They had been Ghouls. All of them. Created by the Leviathan inside of Ina. The coven had been a facade created to build a stationary Coyote Flame, a gateway to the Other Worlds.
Gone was the center circle of flowers arranged in Elemental colors. In its place was a simple, concrete sundial built into a stone and granite dais an inch above the grass. I walked out to it, still a bit freaked out and expecting the grass to erupt and spit zombies back out at me. On the dais were circles within circles, the increments of time marked off with Roman numerals. Zodiac signs also marked along one of the larger spheres, and along the edge, set into its correct place along the large circle, were the Hermetic symbols for the four Elements.
Everything looked in place. Except for a row of four shrubs in the back corner where Ina kept the old tool shed. The shed was gone and in its place were three box hollies. Odd. Where was the shed?
"Looks nice," Ivan said from behind me.
I jumped. Said a few words under my breath and turned to point at him. Dharma stood beside him and I stopped myself. I hadn't expected him to bring her. "Yeah," I said and lowered my hand. "Crwys did a good job with this."
"I think he actually asked Kyle to help him," Ivan looked around. "Where is he?"
"He's with Arden. Soon as Levi gets here, I need to fill you all in."
Ivan looked happy. He seemed to glow when he was around Dharma. Maybe Grey was right and she was good for him. Or maybe I'm just too over-protective.
I told you.
"Your Elementals look happy," Dharma nodded to them as they flitted about. Except for my Gnome. She was on her back on the fresh grass, her short arms and legs at her sides.
"Yeah they are. They say the place is clean. No more of what Ina did," I glanced at Dharma. "Look—"
"Don't start," Ivan said and held up a hand. "She's here because I asked her to be. She wants to help."
"I understand that. But do you understand why I'm hesitant?" I looked at both of them.
"I do," Dharma said. Her pink and blue hair glowed under the floodlights. "And it's okay. The only way you're going to trust me is if I prove myself. But if you want me to go, I will. This is your house."
I looked from her to Ivan and back again. Geez…I could see it in his eyes. Ivan is in love. I wondered if this was his first girlfriend. Yes, I worried about him. He's my responsibility. I took him in when his own family turned their backs. Though our ages were close, he felt like a younger brother.
Watching the two of them, Ivan and Dharma, made me miss Crwys even more. I wanted to feel his heat beside me, hear the sarcasm in his voice. All those things I found annoying, I missed in the pit of my stomach.
I didn't want Ivan to feel like this if he ever lost Dharma, or if she betrayed him. He depended on me for a lot of things, and I depended on him. "Fine," I looked past them to the house. "I wonder when Levi's going to get here."
"Is there a time crunch?" Dharma asked.
"To me there is," I looked at the two of them. "I'm gonna go ahead and tell you what we learned from Arden, and why Kyle stayed behind with her." With that I